VZCZCXRO8275
PP RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHDIR RUEHKUK
DE RUEHIT #0615/01 3521011
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 171011Z DEC 08
FM AMCONSUL ISTANBUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8652
INFO RUCNIRA/IRAN COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 ISTANBUL 000615 
 
SIPDIS 
 
LONDON FOR GAYLE; BERLIN FOR PAETZOLD; BAKU FOR MCCRENSKY; 
BAGHDAD FOR BUZBEE; ASHGABAT FOR TANGBORN; DUBAI FOR IRPO 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/17/2025 
TAGS: PREL PHUM PINS IR TU AZ
SUBJECT: REGIONAL ACTIVISTS STRATEGIZE ON BOLSTERING THE 
IRANIAN WOMEN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT 
 
REF: A) ISTANBUL 601 B) BAKU 1156 
 
Classified By: Acting Pol/Ection Section Chief Geoff Odlum; Reason 1.4 
(b) and (d). 
 
¶1.  (C) Summary: Iranian, Azeri, and Turkish human rights 
experts participated in a "regional women's rights 
discussion" November 28-29 in Istanbul, co-hosted by Turkish 
and Azeri human rights NGOs.  Focusing primarily on the 
beleaguered state of women's rights in Iran, the speakers 
highlighted the need for the Iranian women's rights movement 
to organize itself more effectively; develop closer contacts 
with other elements of Iranian civil society (e.g., student 
groups, labor unions); develop a network with Azeri and 
Turkish counterparts; and work within the Iranian system to 
challenge and change laws, set legal precedents, and raise 
public awareness about the importance of respecting and 
enforcing women's rights.  The enthusiasm of most 
participants over what one described as "a movement 
coalescing" was tempered by a co-host's description of this 
conference as only a "first step," underscoring the need for 
effective follow-up (which the Azeri NGO pledged to 
undertake).  We will stay in contact with Turkish 
participants, and encourage like-minded Turkish NGOs to 
support efforts by Iranian women's rights activists to build 
closer NGO-to-NGO networking links.  End summary. 
 
A lively Iranian women's rights conference in Istanbul 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶2.  (C) ConGen Istanbul's NEA "Iran Watcher" attended the 
November 29 session of a November 28-29 conference in 
Istanbul examining women's rights in Iran, Azerbaijan, and 
Turkey, co-hosted by Novella Jafaroglu, Director of the 
Baku-based "Association for Protection of Women's Rights" 
(ref B), and by Abdulla Buksur, Director of the "Turkish 
World Research Foundation" in Ankara.  (Comment: Istanbul's 
Isik University had originally agreed to co-host with the 
Azeri NGO but withdrew its participation in October because 
of timing and resource constraints.)  The conference was 
attended by more than 50 activists from Iran, Azerbaijan, and 
Turkey, though no reports of the event appeared in the 
mainstream Turkish press.  Despite the conference title, the 
discussions focused primarily on the poor state of women's 
rights in Iran.  Jafaroglu told us that her NGO is preparing 
a summary of the remarks of all participating speakers, 
including from the November 28 session that we were unable to 
attend (speakers that day included well-known German-based 
Iranian human rights activist Hassan Shariat-Madari).  ConGen 
Istanbul and/or Embassy Baku will forward the conference 
summary report to NEA and others upon receipt. 
 
¶3.  (C) The conference's November 29 session included 
presentations by Iranian human rights activist and journalist 
Ali Hamid Iman, who is also actively involved in the 
Iranian-Azeri ethnic rights movement in northwest Iran (ref 
A), by Iranian journalist Jilla Golanbar, and by the Azeri 
NGO host, Novella Jafaroglu.  Discussion was lively and 
free-flowing, even during formal presentations, with speakers 
appearing to tolerate frequent (polite) interruptions and 
verbal give-and-take from the floor. 
 
Iman:  Networking, domestic outreach, and setting legal 
precedents 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (C) Must move on from Marxist origins:  Iman gave a brief 
recent history of the Iranian women's rights movement, noting 
that before the 1979 revolution the movement was led by a 
predominantly Marxist leadership, and even today still 
carries the "residue" of that leftist past.  As a result it 
remains easy for the GOI to brand the current women's rights 
movement as Marxist and anti-Islamic, even though current 
leaders like Shirin Ebadi and Simin Behbahani are moderates, 
Muslims, and clearly not Marxists.  Almost by definition in 
an Islamic society, Iman cautioned, women's rights groups are 
seen as secular and anti-Islamic, a perception that puts such 
groups immediately on the defensive.  He urged that women's 
rights groups be attentive to public attitudes towards their 
activities, act as much as possible in an apolitical way, 
work within the system, underscore their commitment to 
Islamic values, and emphasize that the goal is promoting 
basic human rights, not regime change.  Iman's explanation 
prompted a hejab-donned Iranian observer (who would not give 
her name but identified herself as a dedicated Islamist) to 
assert that the Iranian regime "has so corrupted Islam with 
velyat-e-faqih (comment: rule of Islamic jurisprudence) that 
it has taken all women's rights and dignity away from us, in 
defiance of what the Koran commands.  Genuine Islam would 
 
ISTANBUL 00000615  002 OF 004 
 
 
protect us more and give us higher status than what we have 
ever had under this government." 
 
¶5. (C) A no-win argument:  In response, Turkish NGO director 
Abdullah Buksur took the floor to argue, in the day's only 
discordant debate, that Sunni Islam (as practiced in Turkey) 
offers women far greater legal equality than Iranian Shiism. 
Buksur claimed that Shiism confers on women only 50 percent 
of the legal rights that men enjoy, a status enshrined in 
Iran's constitution and Sharia-based penal code.  Buksur 
called that "an unacceptable inequality" which Iran's 
neighbors and the international community must do more to 
protest.  To stem an increasingly divisive argument over 
Sunnism vs. Shiism in a women's rights context,  Jafaroglu 
took the floor to underscore to participants that the UN's 
Universal Declaration on Human Rights, to which Iran is a 
signatory, rather than any single nation's religion or 
constitution, should provide the legal basis for identifying 
the rights that all Iranians may enjoy. 
 
¶6.  (C) An evolving organizational structure:  Iman noted 
that many successful civil rights movements in the West 
evolved into a "pyramid" structure, starting with a solid 
foundation based on broad civil society support for the 
movement's goals, and working towards successful, 
step-by-step changes in both the laws and the social mores of 
the societies in which they operated.  In contrast, he 
characterized the Iranian women's rights movement as "leaves 
in the wind" -- lacking a solid foundation, and neglecting to 
focus on achieving incremental, concrete progress in passing 
laws or changing social values.  In Iran there are many 
voices advocating women's rights, but no record of lasting 
success at impacting GOI decision-making, or securing 
official positions of responsibility for women serving in the 
Majles or GOI.  Unlike women's rights movements in the West 
and some in Asia, the women's movement in Iran remains too 
disorganized to start effecting lasting reform.  He urged 
Iranian women's rights advocates to organize themselves more 
cohesively.  Creating "many more, and more active, NGOs" is 
part of the solution. "We need to build civil society 
pressure on the regime; we need to start to change public 
perceptions."  He suggested that positive change is never 
going to come from the government, but rather "must come from 
outside forces" (comment: emphasizing that he meant outside 
forces inside Iran).  Iman urged the participants to "use 
globalization as a tool to help us", explaining that as a 
result of the global information revolution, the goals that 
Iranian women's rights advocates want to achieve are already 
"accepted and understood and practiced almost everywhere else 
the world." 
 
¶7.  (C) Global networking as one key:  Iman called on the 
Iranian women's rights movement to place higher priority on 
connecting to other women's rights groups in other countries, 
so as to benefit from their experiences.  He cited the "One 
Million Signatures" march in Iran in 2006, which he called a 
rare case of the Iranian women's rights movement mobilizing 
the population and getting global attention, as an example 
successfully borrowed from another national women's rights 
movement, in that case having been suggested by a Moroccan 
women's rights group.  Iman called on the international 
community -- not just the UN and its member states, but also 
the international business community, multinational 
corporations, and international financial institutions, to 
pressure the regime to respect women's rights or risk losing 
international business and development assistance. 
 
¶8.  (C) Domestic outreach as another:  The Iranian women's 
rights movement must also widen its base of support within 
Iran, Iman added.  The movement's leaders must do more to 
build cooperative relationships inside Iran with other human 
and ethnic rights groups, and not allow the regime to "create 
wedges between students, women, labor leaders, intellectuals, 
and Iranian ethnic groups."  All of these groups, he noted, 
are pushing for the same basic human rights; it is in their 
mutual interest to band together to protect and reinforce 
each other. 
 
¶9.  (C) Working within the system:  Iman cautioned that the 
regime may increase its repression of such civil society 
groups as regime leaders feel increasingly vulnerable to 
economic and diplomatic isolation.  "We will face more 
oppression.  We need to be able to fight back within the 
legal system, and defend our actions in court."  He 
recommended seeking out specific legal cases where the 
women's rights movement could win concrete legal victories 
and set legal precedents, which he suggested would help 
enshrine step-by-step legal reform. 
 
 
ISTANBUL 00000615  003 OF 004 
 
 
Golanbar:  Use the courts to challenge honor killings 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶10.  (C) Jilla Golanbar, a freelance Iranian journalist, 
supported Iman's proposal to seek out "winnable" legal cases, 
urging Iranian women's rights advocates to focus on 
challenging "honor killings" in Iranian courts.  She 
described honor killings -- typically, extrajudicial 
punishment, including murder, by fathers or brothers against 
a woman thought to have engaged in relations with a man 
outside of marriage -- as pervasive among less-educated, 
rural, and traditional Iranian families. Golanbar said that 
honor killings are rarely prosecuted or even investigated in 
Iran, as courts consider it an internal family matter. 
 
¶11.  (C) Golanbar highlighted examples of recent honor 
killings in Iran, including cases in which a teenage girl was 
killed by her father for talking romantically on the 
telephone with a boy; another teenage girl was strangled by 
her father for acting "suspiciously" and complaining of 
abdominal cramps (which the father wrongly assumed was 
pregnancy); and a case where an 11 year-old girl was raped by 
her uncle, then beaten severely by her father for "seducing" 
the uncle.  In these cases, the fathers were not prosecuted. 
Golanbar called on women's rights advocates to build a legal 
challenge against such honor killings and raise more 
international awareness about the problem.  She acknowledged 
that because the practice is based on long-standing 
tradition, communities and courts that tolerate honor 
killings will be slow to change, especially in rural areas 
and among less educated Iranians, "but for humanitarian 
reasons we must do more, and for practical reasons this would 
be an area to raise legal challenges."  Golanbar endorsed 
Iman's recommendation on networking with outside NGOs, 
calling for the establishment of a regional network -- 
starting with Iran, Turkey, and Azerbaijan -- of women's 
rights NGOs that would include legal assistance to challenge 
such laws in court. 
 
¶12.  (C) Turning to the need for sustained focus on 
legislative issues, Golanbar recounted the campaign launched 
by Iranian women's rights advocates in August and September 
to protest against the Majles's consideration of a "Family 
Protection Bill" that would have legalized polygamy and set 
penalties against women who marry foreigners without GOI 
permission, among other archaic measures.  The pressure that 
leaders like Shirin Ebadi were able to bring to bear on the 
Majles forced the bill to be sent back to the Majles's 
Judicial Committee for review.  But Golanbar cautioned that 
the bill would likely be returned to the Majles floor for 
reconsideration in coming months, with "conservatives and 
traditionalists better prepared next time to ignore our 
concerns and pass the bill, so we need to be prepared as 
well." 
¶13.  (C) Women and divorce:  Golanbar bemoaned that in the 
Iranian legal system, "almost all the legal rights in divorce 
cases rest with men, including custody rights, and right to 
even petition the court for a divorce."  Women only have the 
right to seek divorce if the husband is a drug addict or 
impotent, she claimed, while men may seek a divorce for 
almost any reason, and the testimony of male witnesses to 
support the husband's claim are accepted without question as 
evidence.  Golanbar also noted the intense social pressure on 
wives to keep a family together, even in the face of spousal 
abuse.  Extended family, neighbors, and co-workers will often 
pressure an abused wife to stay in a marriage.  Golanbar 
urged women's rights groups in Iran to offer legal and 
logistical support to wives who are trying to seek divorces 
from abusive husbands. 
 
Jafaroglu:  Keep up the momentum 
---------------------------- 
 
¶14.  (C) Novella Jafaroglu closed the November 29 session by 
pointing out that women make up the majority of the Iranian 
population, and over 60% of current university-level 
students.  "Women represent the future of Iran, whether or 
not the government wants to admit it."  She counseled 
patience and moderation, however, as the Iranian women's 
movement evolves into a more cohesive and organized factor 
within Iranian civil society.  "Improving women's rights in 
Iran will not happen overnight.  It will be a long and slow 
step-by-step process."  She reaffirmed the remarks from the 
other speakers on the need to work within the system to 
effect change, specifically endorsing the calls to work 
within the current legal and legislative systems, and with 
the Iranian media, to methodically change laws, regulations, 
legal precedents, and public opinion. 
 
 
ISTANBUL 00000615  004 OF 004 
 
 
¶15.  (C) Jafaroglu also reinforced Iman's and Golanbar's 
appeals to women's rights advocates to seek cooperation with 
regional NGOs and create a regional women's rights network. 
Jafaroglu warned that reaching out too explicitly to western 
(US and EU) human rights NGOs would raise red flags within 
the regime, while women's rights groups in most Arab states 
were no more advanced in their organization or practices than 
Iranian counterparts, so Iranian women's rights groups should 
first focus on creating a regional network with Turkish and 
Azeri counterparts.  At the same time, the Iranian women's 
movement should quietly solicit statements of support from 
the UN and international human rights NGOs like Amnesty 
International, to make clear to the regime that "the world is 
watching."  Jafaroglu pledged to organize a follow-up 
conference soon in Azerbaijan, to move the discussion towards 
more concrete, organizational planning. 
 
Comment:  Early stages of coalescing movement? 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶16.  (C) This appeared to be a well-run conference attended 
by a broad range of pragmatic participants, most of whom 
seemed to agree with the main themes that emerged from the 
discussions (which Jafaroglu suggested to us could serve as a 
"road map" to guide their next steps):  that the Iranian 
women's rights movement needs to organize itself more 
effectively while maintaining an apolitical focus on 
promoting fundamental human rights; that it should develop 
closer links to other aspects of Iranian civil society; that 
it should build networks with Azeri and Turkish counterparts; 
and that it should work within the Iranian system to 
challenge and change laws, set legal precedents, and raise 
public awareness about the importance of respecting and 
enforcing women's rights. 
 
¶17.  (C) The enthusiasm on the part of most participants over 
what one described as "a movement that is finally coalescing" 
was tempered, prudently, by Jafaroglu's characterization of 
this conference as a "first step."  Her recognition that 
progress will likely only come incrementally underscores the 
need for effective follow-up not only in Iran but also in 
Turkey and Azerbaijan, especially in the event Iranian 
authorities target Iranian participants in the conference or 
raise further pressure on the Iranian women's rights 
advocates to undercut their organizational efforts.  As 
Jafaroglu's Baku-based NGO proceeds with planning for a 
follow-up meeting or event, Mission Turkey will stay in 
contact with Turkish participants, and encourage like-minded 
Turkish NGOs to support efforts by Iranian women's rights 
activists to build closer NGO-to-NGO networking links. 
WIENER